Abstract

This essay traces the changing manner by which criminal cases were brought to court in the English legal system from the end of the eighteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century. It discusses the role of victims, magistrates, the different kinds of police officer and the role of grand juries in these procedures, drawing attention in passing to the contrasts with practices on continental Europe. It discusses the growing importance of police officers in the procedure. It concludes by noting the growing importance of lawyers in the courts and the problems for 'truth' and 'justice' that developed in the context of the adversarial system.